Can you understand the "0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calorie" food nutrition label?
2021-10-27
Energy, 240kj; Carbohydrate, 8.7g... Nowadays, a series of figures on food packaging have attracted more and more attention of consumers. It is reported that the National Health Commission is organizing the revision of the general rules for nutritional labeling of prepackaged foods, and the new standard is expected to increase the mandatory labeling requirements for sugar and saturated fat of prepackaged foods. present situation The concept is flying all over the sky and does not repeat every year "0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calorie." "Rich in dietary fiber." "Meet your daily vitamin needs." The rows of drinks on the shelves make Ms. Chen both familiar and strange. I don't know when to start, "nutrition concept" goes beyond taste and has become the biggest gimmick to attract consumers. But the more names, the more confused consumers are. The recent popularity of "vegetable milk" confused Ms. Chen. "Plants also produce milk? Is it healthier and easier to absorb than milk? People in the supermarket can't tell." Ms. Chen has heard of the news of the revision of the general rules on nutrition labels of prepackaged food, but she doesn't understand the specific meaning. "It's probably that the smaller the value, the healthier." In fact, China's current food labels have mandatory labeling of core nutrients - protein, fat, carbohydrates, sodium - and energy values. Behind the various values is the "secret war" of food enterprises. In order to highlight the uniqueness of commodities, nutritional labels such as "0 sugar" on today's food packaging are even larger and more obvious than the commodity name. However, the first paragraph of Article 8 of China's Anti Unfair Competition Law stipulates that "business operators shall not make false or misleading commercial publicity on the performance, function, quality, sales status, user evaluation and honor of their goods, so as to deceive and mislead consumers." "0 sugar, low sugar, mark these. The merchant just wants you to feel that its products have health functions. It can be regarded as a marginal ball." even so, there are still many consumers who "go into the pit" because of the nutritional information on the commodity logo. A consumer who chooses drinks admitted that it is not only traditional advertising, but also the promotion of the concept of food nutrition on many online platforms. "Coconut water in the first two years and oatmeal drinks in this year are particularly popular. I have bought them many times." However, is "standard nutrition" really nutrition? This is not the case. The reporter found a children's dumpling in the supermarket. The salesperson has been promoting "low salt", but the content table shows that the sodium content of this children's Dumpling per 100g is 200 mg more than that of ordinary dumplings of the same brand. In addition, there is also a children's wonton of the same brand, which contains four times as much sodium as ordinary dumplings. Chaos Smart layout of merchants and stepping on the pit of consumers Drinks, sweets, fried foods and unhealthy diet make Xiao Meng deeply troubled by weight problems. Every time you want to quit these foods and drinks, you can't last long. By chance, Xiao Meng found that the previously unacceptable sugar free Cola had become "smooth". After that, he began to look for "substitute food" everywhere, but he also stepped on many pits in the process. Once, he found a "0 fat" lactic acid bacteria beverage on sale in the supermarket, so he bought a box. I thought I bought "healthy food" before I realized, "0 fat" only means no fat, but it doesn't mean low sugar and low calories. When Xiao Meng looked at the ingredient list and ingredient list, he found that the sugar content of this drink was not a little bit, and at this time, he had drunk only a few bottles of a box of drinks. For some time, Xiao Meng tried "non fried" potato chips. At first, he subconsciously thought that non frying meant no oil at all, and had minimized the "unhealthy factors" of food. Later, after reading popular science articles, I learned that non fried foods also use oil in the production process, and compared with ordinary fried foods, although the fat content is generally lower, the sodium content and total energy may even be higher. After several losses, Xiao Meng also formed the habit of looking at the composition list before shopping. But sometimes, the content of some products will also make him wonder. For example, why is the energy of coke you often drink lower than that of milk? Why is coke called junk food? At other times, he almost fell into the digital trap of food manufacturers. "There is a coffee. At first glance, the energy is very low. When you look carefully, you find that its content is calculated according to 13 grams per package, while normal products are calculated according to 100 grams." It is not only that consumers are confused about the nutritional composition of food, but also the excessive pursuit of "health", which even makes some enterprises step into the pit. During the Mid Autumn Festival, in order to pursue the "low sugar" effect, some enterprises added sugar substitutes intolerable to some people in the moon cakes, resulting in diarrhea and other symptoms. Some professionals admitted that in order to avoid the problem of "in order to reduce a certain value, other values increase again", food enterprises should also be guided by more professionals in the process of improving the process. Suggestion Identification shall be detailed and supervision shall be in place According to fan Zhihong, an associate professor in the Department of nutrition and food safety, School of food, China Agricultural University, the reason why Xiao Meng has the doubt that "milk is more energy than coke" is due to the lack of common knowledge of nutrition. According to the guidelines of the World Health Organization, the daily intake of free sugar for adults should not exceed 50g, preferably no more than 25g. The content of free sugar in a 330 ml coke is about 35 grams, which is very harmful to human health. Fan Zhihong said that many people who lose weight only focus on the column of energy, ignoring other indicators, which is unscientific. Fan Zhihong believes that the change of the new logo regulations will provide more convenience for consumers to buy goods. "Excessive intake of sugar and saturated fat can easily lead to hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, obesity and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. It can also promote inflammatory reactions, such as acne on the skin. For some patients, the doctor will tell them to eat less sugar and saturated fat in the doctor's order. These people need to choose more appropriate food through labels." Fan Zhihong said that for most drinks, carbohydrates are almost equal to sugar, so the sugar content of these drinks can be seen from the existing labels. "It's just that many people don't associate carbohydrates with sugar." In fan Zhihong's opinion, the finer the content and composition marked on the food package, the better for consumers, so that they can have a more comprehensive understanding of the composition of food. However, because each value needs to be tested, it will bring a great burden to the production enterprises. From the perspective of cost, it is enough to mark several key component values. In addition to sugar and saturated fat, fan Zhihong hopes consumers can pay more attention to the "sodium" content in food. The main source of sodium is salt. If the intake is too high, it will lead to hypertension, kidney disease, osteoporosis and even gastric cancer. "Another advantage of refining labels is to urge enterprises to complete product upgrading." fan Zhihong, for example, in the early years, when the first edition of the general principles for nutrition labels of prepackaged food had not been published, many enterprises making puffed food and fried food did not pay attention to the content of "trans fatty acids" in products. Trans fatty acids can increase the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. After the introduction of the general principles of nutrition for prepackaged food in 2011, trans fatty acids were taken as the mandatory identification content. Only then did many enterprises realize that they must improve the process and find ways to reduce the content of trans fatty acids, so that their products can be more easily accepted by consumers. "This time, the requirement of mandatory labeling of sugar and saturated fat can have a similar effect." While revising the standard, fan Zhihong suggested that relevant departments must also put in place the testing and supervision of products. For some enterprises that have indiscriminately or wrongly marked the content of product ingredients, they shall be punished and ordered to make corrections. "The most important thing is to strengthen nutrition education for consumers. Otherwise, even if there are more and more detailed ingredients in the label, it will be useless for consumers to understand." (Xinhua News Agency)
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